The Butterfly Biosphere is a small museum for children to explore, and the highlight is an amazing butterfly habitat. This place is a must see for anyone who love any type of animal, especially butterflies.

Butterfly Habitat

The climate-controlled habitat contains hundreds of butterflies. We spotted butterflies flitting, butterflies sitting, and even butterflies landing on surprised visitors. In fact, upon leaving the biosphere, you’ll be checked to see no butterflies have landed on your clothing.

The Biosphere houses many butterflies.

The butterflies are beautiful.

The biosphere is well laid out to accommodate a lot of visitors. Still, they limit the number of people inside, and timed tickets are required, so there may be a line. Once you enter the biosphere, there are winding paths and multiple levels. Trees and vines of different varieties seem to attract butterflies that range in size from as large as your face to as small as a button. Look closely because butterflies that are holding still can be difficult to spot. Even toddlers are enthralled by the large blue butterflies that drift slowly past.

We loved that you could get up close and personal with the butterflies.

There are a huge variety of butterflies.

Right when we were heading out, this butterfly land on our son. It was so cool!

These butterflies were hungry!

At the end of the room, there is a set of windows. Make sure to stop by and check out all the chrysalises that are in various stages of development. When we visited, there was a worker answering questions about butterflies and their development stages. We were glad we spent a few minutes there.

The chrysalises are amazing to see.

Some of the chrysalises are just beginning to open, some aren’t open at all, and some butterflies are out drying their wings off.

Learning Activities

Outside the biosphere there are learning opportunities for students. As with all things at Thanksgiving Point, it is very kid friendly. There are museum like displays for older kids and dress up and photo ops for younger kids. We spent about 45 minutes in the biosphere and 45 minutes checking out the museum. There are other insects to see, and hands-on displays. It was an amazing experience!

The volunteers helped our boys and answered questions.

Other insects were on display.

We learned a lot about insects and butterflies.

Our boys loved pretending to be butterflies waiting to hatch.

We might have had too much fun with the dress up clothes!

Play Area

When we visited the play area wasn’t quite finished, so we are excited to go back and check it out. There are slides and climbing spots where children can pretend to be bugs themselves.

The play area looks fun and we can’t wait to go back and see it completed.

Tips for Visiting Butterfly Biosphere

There are several things that you should know before you visit the biosphere. First, since it is hot and humid inside, leave your coat in the car. We visited in December, and the contrast between the Utah cold and the butterfly’s favorite temperature was striking. We were sweating by the time we left.

The butterflies didn’t seem to mind the heat.

Also, make sure to be careful where you step. We saw several butterflies land on the paved path. It would be really sad to accidently step on one. That said, you will see dead butterflies. Since they only live about a week, and there are around five hundred in the biosphere, the mortality rate is over 70 per day. Workers remove the fallen butterflies, but they are impossible to keep up with. You may want to talk to your children about the lifecycle of the butterflies to make them more at ease.

Watch where you step. Butterflies land anywhere.

Make sure to get tickets beforehand. Since they only let a certain amount of people into the butterfly habitat at a time, they require timed tickets to enter. You can purchase at the door, but you might have to wait to enter for quite awhile if it’s busy. We recommend purchasing tickets before you go. If you have a Thanksgiving Point Membership, tickets are free, but still required.